Anne's Piecrust Recipe

Almost the same as the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook except for the addition of butter.

These recipes are for double crust (top and bottom) pies

8 inch crust:  1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup salted butter - chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 3 Tbsp. very cold water

9 inch crust:     2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 & 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/3 cup salted butter - chilled
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 4 Tbsp. very cold water.

Method:

Put the salt and flour in a medium bowl and whisk together to mix.

Add the diced butter to the flour/salt mixture a little at a time while cutting together using a pastry cutter. Continue with the pastry cutter until the mixture resembles course meal.

Add the shortening and continue using the pastry cutter to distribute the shortening into the flour/salt/butter.

You are finished when the mixture forms little balls the size of peas.

IMPORTANT

If you decide to use a food processor be aware that the crust will not turn out to be as tender as if you do it by hand. And even with a food processor you should still add the butter first, pulse, and then add the shortening second.

Add the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time using a sprinkling motion and then fluff the mixture with a fork after each addition of water. Note about moisture in pastry crust: different times of year have different moisture levels in the air - I often add slightly more water in the winter time and slightly less in the summer. Once you've made pastry a few times you learn to read the dough and have a good sense of how much moisture to add. Too little and the crust will fall apart and be difficult to work with. Too much and the final crust will be tough.

After all the water has been added, pat the mixture down rather tightly into the bowl and then turn it out onto plastic wrap. Use the plastic wrap to work the dough more tightly together.

Cut the dough in half and set one half aside, sealing it up in the plastic wrap to keep from drying out while you work with the other half.

Still inside the plastic wrap, shape the dough into a nice round disk. At this point you can chill it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 25 minutes and a maximum of 2 days. You can also just use this dough right away without refrigeration if you choose - I've done it many times and it comes out fine.

Shape the second half of dough into a disk as you did the first one.

Some helpful tips for rolling out the crust - if you have refrigerated your crust let it come mostly back to room temperature before rolling it out:

1. Put dough onto a lightly floured surface, cover with plastic wrap, and begin rolling. The use of the plastic wrap will help to keep the dough from cracking at the edges. It also means you don't have to cover the rolling pin with flour. Lift and replace the plastic wrap every so often so that the dough has room to stretch.
2. Lay down two pieces of plastic wrap - slightly overlapping each other - instead of using a floured surface. Then place the dough onto the center of the wrap and roll out using more plastic wrap on top as in method 1. Occasionally flip the whole thing over and adjust plastic wrap so the dough will have room to stretch. This method is helpful if you have a dry crumbly crust and are trying to keep if from breaking apart.
3. Put dough onto a lightly floured pastry cloth, cover with plastic wrap and roll out as with method 1. This is my favorite method - pastry cloth is easy to find on ebay, is cheap and completely reusable, and makes it super easy to transfer the crust to the pan later.

Roll the crust out to a thickness of about 1/8th of an inch and a diameter about 1 1/2 inches bigger than the pie pan.

Carefully transfer crust to your pan and either trim or fold over the edge as needed.

Add filling.

Roll out the top crust as you did with the bottom one, transfer to the top of your pan, trim and crimp edges.

Cut slits in top crust for steam to escape.

Bake according to the directions of whatever pie you are making.

Click here to see helpful photos of  the steps outlined above.